Review | Delayed checkouts at ‘The White Lotus’: An unoriginal third season

(Contains Spoilers)

There is no meditation class, no reiki session, no nutritionally balanced, organic food that will ease the anxiety that comes with revisiting the White Lotus for its third season in Thailand. Yet, there couldn’t be a better time to reopen the doors of the White Lotus. Health and wellness are synonyms for wealth — from the newest probiotic pills from Target to the extensive gym memberships to the sudden rise of “thinspo” proliferating in the media. There is no better time to align ourselves karmically and let go of our desires, wants and greed. 

Season three of “The White Lotus” is a sequel to the highly successful season two, which took place in Sicily and ended with the death of viewer favorite, Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, played by Jennifer Coolidge. Mike White, the show’s director, hinted in 2022 that season three would be a “satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality”. The “satirical look” is watered down — the characters all question their values throughout their week in the resort, but the theme of spirituality only focuses on a few characters. The series veers toward a conversation surrounding who we would kill for power rather than one of Eastern spirituality. Considering the scenes recorded in a Buddhist Temple and multiple characters shown praying to Buddha, the connection to Eastern spirituality is quite present throughout the show.

The characters in season three seem repetitive to the show’s past seasons — a Wall Street family with a strange family dynamic, three friends who resort to catty and mean gossip about each other to stay afloat in their 40s and your classic old, balding man, and his much younger, karmically aligned girlfriend. Even so, hating and rooting for their collective demise during the first few episodes seemed almost natural, a justifiable act. As a boat dragged them to a possible death, their lack of self-awareness felt staggering. The same tense and anxious energy that the past two seasons carried was present, and the narratives explored were not new, but instead stories that showrunners can repeat over and over, almost cyclically. The story is slower in season three, almost an undercurrent rather than the tsunamis we had seen in earlier seasons. Yet it is difficult for me to pack my bags and leave the resort, even if it lacks the charm that first caught me with the first season.

The stories and drama of the White Lotus are self-contained in the villa and resort. The show is beautifully built to omit a background, a flashback, or an understanding of who these characters are beyond the walls of their suites. Showrunners force audiences into the uncomfortable position of the average hotel employee facing the collective secondhand embarrassment of the tourists and the consequences they leave at the end of their vacation. 

The three blonde friends — Jaclyn Lemon, a high-profile actress who fears she is growing old and unwanted; Kate Bohr, a newly Republican country club wife; and Laurie Duffy, a freshly fired, newly-divorced lawyer — harass their “health mentor” to get them out of the resort for “fun” but become scared of the local culture once they leave the bubble of the villa. The Wall Street family — the anxious Timothy Ratliff, who is being hunted down by the FBI for fraud, the Lorazepam-addicted wife, Victoria Ratliff, and their children, frat boy Saxton, budding Buddhist Piper and people-pleasing Lochlan — all seem to reaffirm their need and want for money. The spiritually-connected Chelsea and her much older, balding boyfriend, Rick Hatchett, were the two highly loved characters this season, which I did not expect.

Surprisingly, compared to past seasons, the characters of color were built up as anti-heroes in this season. Belinda Lindsey, the Spa Manager at the White Lotus Hawai’i from season one, travels to Thailand for a work exchange between the two hotel branches. Money corrupts her faith and values, and she finds herself repeating the same betrayal she faced in her season one arc with Tanya McQuoid-Hunt. This season, she leaves the Thailand resort as a multi-millionaire, and finally, her dream of opening a spa is about to come true. Gaitok, a low-level security guard at the White Lotus, is the killer this season. The one character who seemed kind and unwilling to put his values and beliefs over power and social standing killed both Chelsea and Rick in the final episode, all because he wanted to impress his coworker and love interest, Mook. While their stories fell short and the writing rushed the last episode, the season finished with us wanting more from the hotel workers. Did Gaitok ever feel guilty, or did recognition and admiration feel good? Does Belinda still have nightmares about Tanya? 

Even so, once the White Lotus closes its doors, so do these stories. While season three did not leave the same impression as the past two seasons, it is still an everlasting story of power and desire. Who are we without our desires and need to please the world?